66 MR. C. BAILEY ON THE STRUCTURE ETC. 



creeping habit of the plant it seems to have an affinity 

 with the form of Z. palustris, named Z. repens, Boenningh. 

 The characters of the Reddish plant agree with the 

 description of Z. repens in essential points^ but the stigma 

 is not usually more enlarged than in Z. palustris, whereas 

 this feature is a decided character^ both in the diagnosis 

 and in Reichenbach's plate ^. In the spring and early 

 summer it has large reserve-buds of the size of peas^ from 

 which the shoots take their rise. 



One of its peculiarities is^ that it has four or five rows 

 of spines or protuberances on the dorsal and ventral edges 

 of many of its carpels^ and much more prominent than 

 they are in Z. pedunculata, Z. gibberosa, and Z. polycarpa. 



Delile reports f finding Zannichellia palustris in a lake 

 near to Fareskour in Lower Egypt;, along with Naias 

 muricata. It would be interesting to determine whether 

 the form is the same as that which occurs in the canal at 

 Reddish. Local botanists also ought to keep an eye upon 

 the possible occurrence of the rare Naias muricata, figured 

 and described by Delile ; so far, it has only been recorded 

 for Egypt and Arabia. 



The locality which produces such an extra-anglican 

 species as Naias graminea must be worth exploring for the 

 animal life which is fostered by the same high temperature 

 which has sustained the Chara and the Naias. 



XVII. GrEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



Naias graminea is distributed over a wide area. It 

 occurs in a natural state in the northern and central parts 

 of Africa, in Syria (Plain of Sharon : ' Memoirs of the 

 Palestine Exploration Fund/ Fauna and Flora^ p. 416), 

 and Persia, in the Indian Archipelago and other warm 



* 'Icones Flora GrermanicaB,' &c., vol. vii. fig. 20, pi. xvi. 



t 'Flore de I'Egypte,' vol. ii. p. 281, and also on page 75 under No. 872. 



